At present, control signaling borne on a physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel; PDCCH) needs to be obtained via blindly detecting a search area by a user equipment (User Equipment; UE). The search area thereof may be divided into a common search area and a UE dedicated search area, where the control signaling in the common search area is used for scheduling a system message, a paging message, initial access signaling and bearer power control signaling.
Besides, for a new carrier type (New Carrier Type; NCT), since there is no traditional control region on the carrier, namely, a PDCCH is not sent, but an EPDCCH is sent, and the EPDCCH which does not contain the common search area only considers the UE dedicated search area. For a NCT which is attached to other carriers, the UE may acquire the control signaling in the common search area by detecting the location of the common search area on the main carrier (not NCT), but for a NCT which is not attached to other traditional carriers, the UE cannot determine the common search area, thereby the control signaling in the common search area cannot be acquired. In addition, a plurality of neighboring cells may use the same cell ID, resulting in an increase in the control signaling which needs to be sent in the common search area, however, the capacity of the common search area is limited, as a result, the control signaling which needs to be sent in the common search area cannot be sent in time, thereby resulting in congestion in the common search area and reducing the transmission efficiency. Therefore, how to design an effective common search area and let the UE be able to determine the location of the common search area is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.